How to Use Collage Scraps to Spark New Ideas

hi it's louise today i have a little demo for you i want to show you what i do with scraps of collage material and how i use those in an exercise that sometimes feeds my work i'm going to be um switching the camera around and going over to my desk to do that but i wanted to say hi first don't forget if you love my videos to hit subscribe if you're watching on youtube or to hit follow or like if you're on facebook or instagram to make sure that you see the videos when i post them and there's always more coming so let's go over i just want to switch the camera around and show you what's going on in my studio at the moment it's a little bit messy but it's a creative mess and then we will go over to my desk and i'll show you this little collage trick so here is my studio um absolute chaos paintings and exercises on the floor things on the wall it's actually tidier than it sometimes is i've started trying to tidy up my painting table this file cabinet's got nowhere to go i need to find a place for that my kettle very important my notice board when people send me nice cards and letters i put them all on this notice board and it's lovely to see them and canvases and panels waiting to be put away my coat and my bag my computer just propped up there look at this mess here uh everything that i've had out recently just piled up and my desk here is where we're going to be working so i'm going to put the camera up over the desk and then we'll get started so if you've watched my videos before you've seen me work in these concertina books i have quite a lot of these on the go but i also work in other kinds of sketchbooks all kinds of sketchbooks this one is a canson mixed media pad this paper will take a lot of glue and paint and stuff so this is one where i do experiments and one of the things i do in this book this is a warm-up exercise sometimes it's also sometimes a um if i'm just not in the mood to start paintings or when i'm between series so i've just finished a series of paintings and i'm looking for the next theme or idea and so i work in these books and i don't do this stuff to sell i just do it for my own exploration fun and i have this box so i have all sorts of collage materials this is like a shoebox type thick size but when you're collaging you are always using paper and leaving some that you don't use so any little scraps of paper go in here and this then is a source of materials for me to pull out and use in this sketchbook and i'll show you what i do i'm halfway through one here so um i'm work i work on just these collages here is an example of a recent one that's not quite finished yet but this is a bit of a painting i did this is some collaged on tissue paper this is some paper that somebody kindly sent me some collage paper that i've used a piece of an old letter um and there's another one and i just do these as little exercises to see if they bring up any ideas and to use up these scraps of paper because it seems a waste not to use them so i've just stuck a few things down but it's very loosey-goofy no pressure and i usually try and say if i've picked something up but i need to use it so that really means i'm not trying to make these into finished pieces because obviously forcing myself to use things means that sometimes it's not going to work out very well don't use your fingers for glue the way i do it just means a lot of washing your hands and but i just don't have the patience really for other things so if i've picked up a piece from the box then i have to use it and then i'm allowed to paint over and i can't take anything that's not a scrap so i can't go digging in my drawer and find something else um because that's not part of the rules but i can draw the top of it or paint over top of it with other things this nice letters that somebody kindly sent me would that go with this or would it be a bit too much i don't know i like that pattern of the dots against this kind of it is this it is a pattern but it's a it's a organic rather than a structured pattern unlike that one um see all that bit in do i want some text on here i'm fishing in here looking for some text i don't always have the kind of thing i'm thinking that i need here's some text and now i've picked it up so i should have used that as well but i'm cheating a bit do i want to use that there is it too many things all going the same way do i want to bring it across do i want to have just a little bit of it i could do that i'll just have a little bit of it so i set the rules so i can cheat if i want to but doing this is a really nice fun way to just use up your bits of collage material and also possibly from time to time spark an idea not always sometimes nothing comes of it and that's all right too or sometimes you'll look back ages later and say oh i like the way i put pattern against text there i might do more of that so then i could draw on this um and i haven't got any paints out at the moment but like i said sometimes i might paint over some of it too and then i'll just leave it it's not this is a really quick exercise this is not like lots and lots of thought and i really like that scrap that was left but that's a very bold scrap if i use that um i'm allowed to choose the first starting piece without that tying me down and then after that i have to respond so sometimes i see a piece and i think no that's too nice to waste in the sketchbook oh keep it i'm trying to find a first piece here something that can be the basis for the rest of it about this i don't like it's got that bar around it though that's going to hem me in i'm always doing things that point downwards so i'm gonna try and do something where it's primarily going across let's see how that goes i don't want to waste that scrap so i use it in a different way that's the bit one of the bits i cut off now i'm thinking this one could just be different kinds of language that i don't understand or at least that could be the basis for it so we've got now like now this nice cross shape going on but i don't think this is not fully transparent whatever this paper was made on somebody gave me this paper so i really should get a scraper or something for this glue and you're gonna ask me what kind of glue i'm using so here i'm gonna start with this piece which is some lovely handwritten like calligraphy type marks that somebody sent me and also this which somebody else sent me which is a big piece of paper like newsprint that they painted on now i like across like that but i don't want to cover up those nice letters so i'm wondering about cutting it in half so that i can continue moving about like does that look right not really but it needs to be further down something like that maybe putting them all at an angle to create something a bit more dynamic i can say use something else for your glue you're not as messy as me i really don't have the patience because i always put it down if i get a scraper i'll put it down and lose if i get a brush it gets gumped open sometimes something like this two pieces might you know two different pieces might be enough but usually i keep going a bit more than that i love collaging with paper that other people have made because it just it's something different it's not me and then it might be nice to put a little pop of color in there and i know in my scrap box i have some of this which is i think it came off a billboard or something i'm gonna cut a random piece out and then i have to use that random piece i can make it smaller if i want to maybe i don't want to make it smaller i've moved all this is too far down the page we'll just have to picture as if it's gone further up i could make it go further some of that in [Music] no definitely better that way it's funny how you just know which way you like it best don't mean one's right and wrong it just means that's the way i like it best uh what else if i take some of that paper off there it'll make it look a bit less bottom heavy also it's nice the torn edge against a sharp edge so always looking for difference different things in the pieces to add some variety and interest really not sure about that i think it's just too much so while it's still wet i can probably take some day off feeling better about it now it was too big i can always save those bits for something else and it's feeling a bit bottom heavy like there's nothing coming across here but i don't want anything really big and heavy up there because we've already got this so try balancing that with another piece of that paper going up there that will be something different now i've picked it up of course the rule is that i'm supposed to use it but i can always break my own rules that's quite nice balances it out better down there i don't want it to be on the same level as that or it's not enough contrast again in size and shape so it's a great exercise for practicing composition and design just using scraps of paper like this and you're not using anything precious like this you could even you can use a much cheaper sketchbook than i'm using i like this book i like the size of it i like the spiral bound but you could use something that's much less expensive and then the whole thing is just the cost of the glue so now i've done in a very short amount of time made two little exercise collages with varying degrees of success i much prefer this to this and so it's interesting then to think about why what do i prefer why do i prefer that to that and that's all part of teaching yourself as well i think it's because it's only a tiny pop of saturated color as opposed to this big blob here and it's less busy there's a lot more going on on this so if i wanted to now i could simplify this and see if i could like it better and i do that by just getting some white paint or all the collage materials but usually white paint and covering some of it up well that's my exercise that i do with my collage scrap box my trusty colored scrap box ever growing always adding new bits to it that's it for me this week if you would like to come and join us on the free course that i'm running in june please do you will find the link above below with this video in the description somewhere just click the link add your name to the list and you'll be notified where the materials list and schedule closer to the date we start on june the third and it's seven days long and we would really love to have you so i hope to see you there take care bye

Channel: Louise Fletcher Art

Views: 26,156

Rating: 4.9598856 out of 5

Keywords: art, artist advice, artist, painting, painting tips, art tips, art inspiration, abstract painting

Id: -CuSRnXPNBg

Length: 16min 35sec (995 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021